Fitness Safari

I n my journey through the Fitness Safari, I am looking at every small achievement as another crossed milestone - each pound lost and rep completed is bringing me closer to my goal. Yesterday I passed such a milestone - actually I'm calling it a 2-"milerstone."  Earlier this year, in what was to be yet another failed attempt at making exercise part of my regular routine, I hurt my hip running. I think I just tried to do too much too quickly and ended up with bursitis - the inflammation of a jelly-like sac covering the bony point of my hip (the greater trochanter). It is an attachment-point for muscles that move the hip joint. When inflammation is present, movements such as walking and running result in pain. I finally came to the conclusion that the pain would not go away with rest alone and saw a sports medicine doctor who prescribed physical therapy. After just two weeks I noticed a dramatic improvement in the pain (it no longer hurt when I walked or jogged slowly).  Ba...

My new motto: Break a sweat at least once a day. I know it's not original, but it's snappy. Just got back from a quick jog with my favorite running buddy, Bella. When she's not chewing on everything, she's quite the runner. Knowing she needs the exercise as much as I do (or she would eat the house) helps me to get moving when I would otherwise rather retire to the couch with a glass of wine. My shoulders are still burnt from Saturday's back/shoulder blast, and my legs are recovering from my stair climber odyssey of Sunday, so a light cardio day is probably a good idea. Ate well so far today - protein shake with skim milk for breakfast; muscle milk light bar for mid-morning snack; turkey sub on wheat/oat bread with veggies and O/V for lunch; small handful of walnuts for afternoon snack and now I'm planning lemon shrimp and lo-carb pasta for dinner. I highly recommend DreamFields for all of you pasta-fanatics out there. Low-glycemic impact = no insulin spike. Also...